Months after the rest of the DC TV shows have wrapped up their seasonsSupergirl season three has finally come to a close. And while much was wrapped up, an adaptation of major Superman comic arc being adapted for Supergirl was teased.

The season finale of Supergirl was a lot like the preceding episodes. Way too busy, frustratingly devoid of the central character (she disappeared from the plot for almost twenty minutes!), and kind of a mess overall. But where that left me confused and annoyed before, here Supergirl felt... dare I say, fun? Maybe it was because it was the finale and the show ended up writing out not one but three full-time characters. But I did not hate this hour of TV.

Sam, after getting serenaded by ghost mom Betty Buckley in the Kryptonian underworld, returned to the living world, stabbed her alter ego, and joined Kara to drag Reign back to the underworld where she forced fed her poison and, like, dissipated into the ether? Or something? Anyway, Reign is dead and Sam and her daughter have departed to recover off screen for the foreseeable future.

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Winn has also departed—just for the literal future. He’s headed back to the future to help the Legion defeat an evil Brainiac (now alive in this universe again since he was previously killed by the virus and that’s no longer a thing?) using his supermind. He will no longer be a regular on the show, instead popping back and forth as the plot dictates.

Just a mother and daughter rocking the same belt and averting disaster together.Photo: The CW

Not popping back and forth is Mon-El, who has returned to the future to lead the Legion and hopefully fix his marriage and trim his mustache. He and Kara really are totally, and completely, done. He’s not coming back to woo Kara. They’re not getting together for time traveling trysts. They’re now, firmly, a bittersweet what could have been.

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The long nightmare is over folks!

While Supergirl herself continued to take a back seat for the finale not a single other character did. James came out as Guardian. Lena told Alex she’d be a great mom and then began some potentially evil “phase 2” that is teased as being possibly evil because the show really is gonna drag out the “is Lena evil” thing for as many seasons as possible.

Alex, meanwhile, tried to quit the DEO because she wants to be a mom, but J’onn wouldn’t let her quit because he wanted to quit instead after his dad died and merged with the Earth. So now J’onn is wandering the Earth in a cool hat and Alex is in charge of the DEO and continuing the extremely ‘80s plot of “can a successful career woman have it all?”

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Photo: The CW

Which is, you know, a question the show tackled back in season one when Cat Grant took audiences to task for daring to ask the question in the first place. Apparently, the writers forgot that asking if a woman can have it all in the year 2018 is deeply stupid. Fingers crossed Cat Grant magically returns to tell them that?

She probably won’t, because it looks like next season is going to be very busy being focused on the Many Faces of Supergirl. If you made it to the end of the episode you saw that a second Supergirl was created during Supergirl’s journey back in time and the underworld. (Look she accidentally killed Reign who then murdered like everyone and she felt she needed to travel back and fix it and Barry Allen will no doubt soon drag her ass to a Time Travelers Anonymous meeting).

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This second Supergirl shows up in Russia in a direct nod to one of the best known Superman stories ever written: The DC Comics Elseworld tale, Red Son. That’s an alternate universe story that explores what would have happened if Superman had landed in Russia instead of the US as a baby. Spoilers: Nothing good happens when Superman is born into Stalin-era Russia.

The Superman of Red Son loves his hammer and sickle. Image: DC Comics

Red Son is no “For the Man Who Has Everything” or All-Star Superman, but its definitely one of the best-known tales in the Superman lexicon and the showrunners confirmed to TVLine last night that a naked and confused Kara’s arrival in Siberia was a tease of that story.

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But it also looks like the tease of two other Super-tales. The first is Supergirl’s arrival on Earth in the rebooted 2011 universe. She lands in Russia and proceeds to destroy a lot of things as she freaks out over being on an alien world and suddenly possessing superpowers.

The second is Supergirl’s origin in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Then the character of Supergirl wasn’t actually Superman’s cousin from Krypton (she was, at the time dead), but a ball of goo shaped like Lana Lang from an alternate universe called Matrix. She was in love with Lex Luthor. She and Superman were sort of family but also she was a ball of goo shaped like Lana Lang (and also Superman’s cousin?!) from an alternate universe. Look it was a confusing time, all right?

It definitely seems like some of the confusion is coming to Supergirl next season, which should be... interesting. But with a pared down cast and the focus forced back onto the titular character those kinds of silly super shenanigans are totally welcome. I think. Or maybe I’ve just been broken by the show and the camp and silliness is actually ruining Supergirl.

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Feel free to voice your own opinion in the comments.

Assorted Musings:

Mon-El is gone!

Reign is gone!

Winn is kind of gone!

Brainy is staying in the present and adorable!

Jesse Rath continues to be welcome and delightful as Brainy and you should definitely spend the break watching him in No Tomorrow, where he played a Gizmodo-like tech writer who believes his ex’s new boyfriend is crazy. The show goes straight sci-fi in its finale.

Supergirl’s method of flying back in time with all her recent tragedies flashing before her as she nyoomed was a direct reference to the end of Richard Donner’s Superman.

Imra stopping a tidal wave with her mind while Supergirl and her mom froze it into an iceberg was not a reference to anything, but was super cool. The way the destroyed it probably would have caused just as many problems with the water level but we’ll let that slide.

Superman did not actually appear, but news reports claimed he saved Madagascar while not even attempting to help out with the whole Reign thing. Never change you superdick.

Kara and her mom parted ways like they would never see each other again. But they have spaceships?